The Kanniyakumari Government Medical College and Hospital at Asaripallam, which was flooded with fresh positive cases everyday till a few weeks ago, has so far successfully treated over 11,000 patients including 130 with chronic kidney disease.
Out of over two lakh tests conducted till now, 14,470 were found to be positive till Wednesday (October 21). Of this, the medical college hospital has taken care of 5,000-odd cases as in-patients and another 6,000-plus cases in COVID Care Centres established outside the campus.
“Of this, 1,165 cases were in Intermediate Care Unit and another 1,340 patients had to be treated with oxygen support due to heavy lung involvement,” says Suganthi, Dean, Kanniyakumari District Medical College Hospital.
Though most of the cases could easily be diagnosed with the viral infection following regular test protocols, 1,440 had to undergo CT scan for confirmation of infection in the lung and another 4,200 X-rays were taken by the Department of Radiology.
The most challenging cases that the doctors at the hospital had to deal with were 130 positive patients with chronic kidney disease. More importantly, 440 of them had to undergo heaemo-dialysis sessions at regular intervals.
“Since these patients would be very weak owing to prolonged treatment and medication for the failed kidneys, the viral infection would pose serious threat to their lives. So, our team of doctors had to neutralise the virus even as haemo-dialysis was being done periodically,” Dr. Suganthi points out.
Of the 383 positive pregnant women, 183 deliveries were conducted at the hospital, where 260 paediatric positive cases, including 56 symptomatic cases, were also treated successfully.
“Though we take utmost care in ensuring the best medical care to all positive patients, we lost 208 to the viral infection, mainly due to underlying medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiac ailments,” she says.
Dr. Suganthi attributes the greater success rate to the efforts of the district administration to create modern medical facilities for treatment of COVID-19 patients and the doctors, nurses and other workforce of the hospital.
“When we were in need of well-equipped intensive respiratory care unit to treat seriously infected COVID-19 positive cases, the steps taken by the Collector ensured creation of the facility within the shortest period. The timely establishment of an ultra-modern facility saved the lives of several hundreds of patients, including a 76-year-old woman after 53 days of treatment, who would have to spend a few lakhs of rupees in private hospitals,” says Dr. Suganthi.
Former Radhapuram MLA M. Appavu, and MLAs Rajesh Kumar and N. Suresh Rajan reposed their faith in Kanniyakumari District Medical College Hospital after they tested positive for the viral infection.
